Pinocchio

Pinocchiowas Walt Disney‘s second feature length film after Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and despite being made in 1940, it’s one of the few early works of Disney to escape modern cultural criticism. Perhaps that’s why the good folks running Disney’s eponymous studio in 2017 are now eyeing the classic story of a wooden puppet that wants to become a real boy as their next live-action success story. Disney’s last effort, Beauty and theBeast,collected over $1.2 billion at the international box office in just two months of release, which is about how much director Sam Mendes made for James Bond in Skyfall. Can anyone say “strange bedfellows”? (more…)

You know a film is going to be huge when the folks over at How It Should Have Ended are making HISHE videos for the trailer. Joss Whedon should take this as a compliment really, usually a film has to hit the big screen before HISHE turns their humorous eye towards it. Avengers: Age of Ultron only had to show a short trailer to get the HISHE juices flowing. (more…)

Once we saw the Avengers: Age of Ultron trailer and heard that haunting Pinocchio music and lyrics, we knew there would be mashups, the only thing missing was Sean Bean’s Eddard Stark warning us that the Mashups were coming. We’ve gathered a few to take the edge off until we get Tuesday’s new Avengers: Age of Ultron footage during Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.(more…)

It’s only one of the most anticipated movies of 2015. It’s also one of the most anticipated movies of the decade. Fans at San Diego and New York Comic Con have been lucky enough to see some of this already, but the wait was soon to be over, as last night it once announced that the next installment of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. would feature the premiere of the Avengers: Age of Ultron trailer. Of course, as these things go in the modern age with the internet and all – Surprise! – this puppy leaked early. So if you have no impulse control and an itchy clicking figure, dig in now for your first look at the all new adventure of Marvel’s premiere super-team.

UPDATE: Marvel has thrown up their hands and gone ahead and released the official trailer, along with first official poster.

Word is that the whispered rumors about Tim Burton’s Pinocchio movie might be bearing fruit. Jane Goldman (Stardust, Kick-Ass and X-Men: First Class), is in talks to tackle the rewrite of Bryan Fuller‘s first draft of Pinocchio, and she will be incorporating RDJ‘s script notes. Although not signed to contract, Robert Downey Jr. has been attached to the project in early stages to star as Geppetto, and has submitted script notes of his desired changes.

The Hollywood Reporter broke the news of Goldman’s joining the Warner Bros. project. THR says that no deals are in place, but many believe that the addition of Goldman to the team and the inclusion of RDJ‘s script requests will help lock in contracts for Burton as director and Downy as the lead character.

The story is described:

Downey would play Geppetto, the woodcarver who creates the puppet who dreams of becoming a real boy and whose nose grows when he tells a lie. When Pinocchio goes missing, Geppetto embarks on a quest to reunite with his marionette.

Of course the focus will be more on Geppetto with an actor of RDJ’s stature in the role. There are sure to be adventures for the puppet maker as he tracks down his wayward creation.

Does this mean that Johnny Depp might take on the Pinocchio role? When is the last movie Burton has directed without Depp? What do you think about the project?

Guillermo Del Toro is putting his magic touch on another fairy tale classic, Pinocchio. We learned today Del Toro is teaming up with The Jim Henson Company (OMG! AWESOME!) and Pathe to create a 3D, stop-motion animated film that will more closely resemble the original Carlo Collodi tale than the Disney version. Expect this version of Pinocchio to be grittier, darker and more surreal. I’m hoping for a faithful adaption that won’t put us to sleep like the hum-drum Alice in Wonderland Tim Burton recently gave us. Del Toro talked about the children’s tale with Deadline,

“There has to be darkness in any fairy tale or children’s narrative work, something the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Anderson and Walt Disney understood,” del Toro said. “We tend to call something Disney-fied, but a lot of people forget how powerfully disturbing the best animated Disney movies are, including those kids being turned into donkeys in Pinocchio. What we’re trying to do is present a Pinocchio that is more faithful to the take that Collodi wrote. That is more surreal and slightly darker than what we’ve seen before.”

Del Toro won’t be directing, sadly, but he’s producing and handing the directing reigns over to Gris Grimly and Mark Gustafson. Grimly recently illustrated a version of Collodi’s original Pinocchio and that book became the basis for this project. Gustafson was the director for Wes Anderson’s adaptation of Roald Dahl’s The Fantastic Mr. Fox. They’ve already tapped Australian rocker, Nic Cave for music consultation and MacKinnon and Saunders will be handling the stop-motion. They are probably best known for working on Tim Burton’s The Corpse Bride and The Fantastic Mr. Fox. With this caliber of talent involved we can only expect great things.

I adore stop-motion and wish more studios would produce this kind of animation. I understand it’s time consuming and often very costly but seriously Hollywood, when you’re pushing out a half dozen, awful, 3D, computer generated shit films every month you’d think you could spare a dime on a more creative and innovative form of animation. I’m not a hater on CG animation, I’m not one who thinks the computer has killed the animator but have you seen some of the schlock coming out, Gnomeo and Juliet? Wtf!? But that’s just like, my opinion, man.

It sounds like Guillermo Del Toro really has his hands full right now. Besides working on Pinocchio he’s got the film adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s At The Mountain of Madness and that little monster which sprouted into two films, The Hobbit. How can he possible handle yet another film? Well, Guillermo Del Toro’s a wizard. Wait, no. Here’s what Del Toro says about how he’s managing his new project,

“We’ve designed key frames and characters, we know the mood and the feel, we’ve created a bible,” del Toro said. “ Shooting stop motion animation takes a lot time, but we’ve got the right team and I will be there for daily or weekly updates on how it’s going.”

Or maybe he is a wizard, I don’t know. But I do know this Pinocchio film looks fantastic. After the jump check out two more concept images and tell us what you think.

It’s been awhile since I last watched Disney’sPinocchio and all I remember about it is that the old man wanted a boy, youngin’s getting drunk and gambling, and that people were swallowed by a whale. Well, the fine folks over at CollegeHumor takes an interest take on the Pinocchio story and hilarity ensues. Watch as Geppetto shows his disapproval of Pinocchio wanting to be what he wants and doing what he can to have a real boy. I can say that because of this video, I now have a new view on what Pleasure Island is.

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